


Come with me and escape

by Lacerta



Series: Let me show you [2]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: badass!Peter, competent!Peter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-28
Updated: 2017-04-28
Packaged: 2018-10-25 01:16:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10753719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lacerta/pseuds/Lacerta
Summary: “Guess it’s my turn to be captured now, don’t worry guys, I got this?” Gamora cleared her throat and clarified, "That’s what Peter said before he got kidnapped."“I do not see how that could be a clue.”It's Peter who got kidnapped this time. Time for a rescue mission.(Can be read as a stand-alone.)





	Come with me and escape

**Author's Note:**

> Because the Internet _still_ needs more of a competent Star Lord.
> 
> I got the prompt from wonderful Renegade Hero and I hope I won't disappoint with the twist the story took. c:
> 
> If you like what you read, I'd be hyped if you left a kudos or a comment! And now, sit back and enjoy ;)

The only thing that kept Gamora from excessive cursing at the fact that one of them got kidnapped again was her annoyance at how she wasted time on that back then. Everything was proceeding too slowly for her taste. If it had been Peter who sat by the Milano console, he would have had the security footage pulled up already. Rocket, even though experienced with technology, couldn’t match Peter’s speed when it came to hacking.  


Gamora breathed through her nose, trying to calm down her nerves. Peter needed all of them focused, not distracted by petty irritation.  


“If Quill had the thing wired like I told‘im he should, I’d’ve been done in seconds!” the raccoon growled in frustration.  


“I am Groot,” came the flora colossus’s calm response. Gamora suspected that Groot’s words conveyed the sentiment she shared, because Rocket laid his ears back and bared his teeth, getting all worked up.  


“Ya really think Peter’d manage better than me, pal? Huh, as if!” He pressed something victoriously on the pad. “See?! I did it! Betcha Peter would’ve given up already!”  


This wasn’t the time for quarrels, Gamora reminded herself, not even bothering to hide a heavy sigh. She was tempted to scold the racoon but, at this moment, finding out what happened to Peter was more important than Rocket’s lack of respect for the lost teammate. She concentrated on the recovered footage instead, muting the background of Drax’s observations on Star-Lord’s average speed of database hacking and Rocket’s vulgar responses.  


Gamora tapped the screen to fast-forward the recording to the relevant place. There, Peter just walked into the frame. She restored the original speed in time to notice Peter looking up at the sky. He frowned, Gamora guessed by the blurred image, and turned around to locate the camera of the auction hall in the far end of the alley.  


Next, Peter was tased and picked up from the ground by two hooded goons that jumped out of the side alley. Cowards, attacking from behind Peter’s back. She wanted to spit in disgust.  


The taser must have been why the location signal from his jacket had been disrupted. Good thing that the system had alarmed them when it happened and had saved Peter’s last coordinates. Unfortunately, the broken transmitter also meant that they had no idea where he was right now.  


But was this all information they could recover…? It wasn’t much to go after.  


“Rocket,” she interrupted the, by now full-fledged, argument that was being carried on behind her back. The crew instantly fell silent at her sharp voice. “Can you enhance the quality of the footage? We need more details.”  


“Duh!” The raccoon scurried back to the console. Few quick taps of his paws and the loading sign appeared on the screen. “Obviously I can! See, here.” Rocket rewound the video back to where Peter entered the scene. There he was again, looking up, frowning, turning to the camera, getting tased and kidnapped. Except now Gamora was able to discern what Star-Lord mouthed at the camera.  


“Guess it’s my turn to be captured now, don’t worry guys, I got this?” she repeated after him, pensively stroking her sword. Only when she noticed the team’s bewildered looks, she cleared her throat and clarified, “That’s what Peter said before he got kidnapped.”  


“I do not see how that could be a clue.”  


Drax, mostly under Peter’s influence, was getting more used to the idea of metaphors, even going as far as sometimes using them, which was almost always followed by a proud grin directed at Peter, who in turn never failed to cheer on the Destroyer. However, Drax’s new prowess was not going to help them now – Gamora agreed that the simple message could hardly contain any hidden meaning.  


“Hey, I got their gang symbol from their coats!” The recognition software was already running when Rocket said that and the console beeped soon enough, announcing its success. “Huh, S’ear Monks, whoever the fuck they are. See, got them, ya think Quill could do that?”  


Gamora did not mention that Rocket only managed to do it in at least twice as much time as it took Peter to find Drax, Groot and Rocket the last time they were kidnapped. She did not mention that Rocket used Peter’s own recognition software, either. It wasn’t the time for dispute, she reminded herself once more.  


“Rocket, prepare weapons, we’re going to need them.” They were going to need them, as far as she knew – monks tended to come in great numbers, but, maybe most importantly, mentioning weapons worked miracles at shifting Rocket’s attention. “Groot, do make sure he doesn’t go and sacrifice the ship’s engine or anything too important or difficult to replace. Drax, go to the tavern and do try to be subtle when asking around for anything on these monks.”  


“I will be subtle, Gamora. Peter has been showing me how to be discreet, and I will do my best to make him proud!” Drax exclaimed loudly.  


The assassin nodded. Honestly, she had no real hope for Drax not to attract too much attention to himself, but right now it might be just what they needed. If anyone would spill the gossip in the far corners of the tavern, sharing a laugh at the helpless Destroyer with their drinking companions, Gamora will be there to hear it.  


***  


It rarely went as easy as they planned, and this time wasn’t an exception. Gamora had quickly located the man who seemingly knew something about the S’ear Monks but he wasn’t as chatty as she had hoped for, even after his third drink. Thankfully, there was next to nothing that the good old interrogation techniques couldn’t force out of people. When the man had stood up to leave, the assassin had followed him and, using the element of surprise, dragged him by the elbow to the back alley.  


Oh, of course, he tried first to protest and then to escape. Gamora smirked, remembering his pathetic attempts to free himself. Normally Peter wouldn’t approve of her methods, she was aware. He had that inconvenient conviction that as the Guardians of the Galaxy they couldn’t just run around, torturing and killing their way through.  


But Peter wasn’t there, Peter had been taken by these bastards and Gamora was never the one to go easy on those who threatened what was hers.  


Luckily, by the time she and Drax returned to Milano, Rocket was finishing up his newest weapon, with Groot clumsily drinking water from the tap. When they all gathered in the control room, the Guardians looked at Gamora expectantly.  


“Have you caught’em bastards?”  


She nodded grimly at Rocket’s impatient question.  


“We have, at least one of them. I have... persuaded him to share the beliefs of their organization and from what it looks like, they’re not your casual henchmen. They claim to hail the immortal S’ear Goddess and they bring her offerings from all across the galaxy, mostly innocent children and brave warriors. It sounds like a hoax, if you ask me.” The assasin frowned. “She’s not immortal, she’s collecting ingredients for some kind of a longevity spell, even if we don’t know what kind of sacrifice she uses. Nothing pretty, for sure.”  


“I call bullshit, too, if they mistook Quill for a brave warrior!” The racoon snickered. Gamora hoped that despite his attitude, he will be motivated enough not to jeopardize the rescue mission. His next words soothed the concern. “The ashole got what he deserved, right?”  


Gamora simply grinned and turned to the console to insert the coordinates she had gotten from the monk. They were ready to leave the Kazzul system.  


From there, it should’ve been easy.  


Surprise: it wasn’t.  


Turns out that Rocket’s weapons of mass destruction were not very effective in the narrow corridors of the hand-carved cave that served as the Monks’ temple. Most of them were inapplicable, really, unless they wanted to bury themselves under the rocks along with the enemies.  


Groot’s vines were perfect, though, he could stretch them in the corridors and use them to knock the monks into the walls. As invulnerable as he was, though, getting burnt down wasn’t something Groot wanted to ever try again, so as soon as the monks found his weakness, the colossus had to refrain from the long distance strikes.  


And while Drax and Gamora were in the perfect fighting form, the sheer number of the enemy forces was beginning to wear the Guardians down.  


“Fall back!”  


The words felt bitter, even as she called so. It felt too much like running away for her liking. Too much like giving up on Peter. Gamora from the past might have left her companions behind without a second thought, but she wasn’t the same person any more.  


Retreat itself wasn’t easy, either. Groot protected them from the worst of it, taking shots for all the other three; he could regrow himself with time, even if the attacks temporarily weakened him. And yet, his sacrifice wasn’t enough. She noticed Drax favouring his left hand – not too much, so it was probably just sprained. Gamora got her own share of bruises, plus a few nasty burns where she barely managed to duck before the blaster shots. Rocket probably got the worst of it, with shrapnel pieces stuck into his leg. It didn’t slow him down much, he just sat on Groot’s shoulder and showered the monks with bullets with even greater fury.  


Gamora mulled the facts over in her head. Their injuries were nothing that they couldn’t recover from in a week’s time with proper care and supplies. But if they took their time to heal them, they would come back to even better prepared enemies with next to zero chances of actually rescuing Peter. On the other hand, if they rushed back in now, they would sacrifice their lives, and still not help Quill.  


There was really no choice there, Gamora realised, as she ushered the team into the rock cavity. It was just a rather shallow crater in the otherwise even surface of the rocks surrounding the cave temple, but it would have to do for a while. The monks wouldn’t be able to see them from the distance, which would give Gamora the extra few minutes she needed to persuade the other Guardians that they needed to leave and never look back.  


First, though, she needed to persuade herself. It was true that Peter kept getting himself into this kind of situations and the team was hardly to blame for his misfortune. Still, it wasn’t as easy as blaming him for everything – she had taught herself to think of the Guardians as of a family. Losing any one of them was not only a blow to her pride but, she admitted unwillingly, a personal loss as well.  


“I am Groot?”  


“Yeah, sure, I’m just peachy, Groot, gonna have to thank Quill for that once we find’im!” Rocket threw a snarky reply.  


It looked like the other Guardians were not yet aware of how grave the situation was. Except for Drax, who looked soberly at the assassin. He must have known their chances already.  


Gamora nodded slightly to him, face as unmoving as if it was carved from stone. The Destroyer lowered his eyes in response, silently mourning the loss, most probably.  


The assassin glanced at the raccoon and the colossus, looking for some comfort in their familiar bickering. She didn’t lose everything, she had to remember that. She still had the team. Her family. They needed her and she will not fail, not again.  


Breathe in. Breathe out. In – and out.  


She heard a buzzing sound between her breathing pattern. She briefly checked her own prosthetics but they worked flawlessly. A quick look at Rocket confirmed that, thankfully, the sockets on his back were unharmed. So where was this disturbing sound coming fro…?  


Then it clicked.  


She looked up at the sky, just like Peter had on the recording they recovered. There it was. A drone with a bright yellow S’ear sign on its bellow. If she were to guess, she’d say it was the same thing Peter had seen seconds before his kidnapping. And if the drone had already found them, the monks will soon follow.  


They were screwed.  


There wasn’t even enough time for Gamora to warn the team before an almost silent rustle at the edge of the cavity signalled the arrival of the enemy.  


Void damn it, there were three of them! How the Hel did they manage to sneak up on them all?!  


She had the choice and just split seconds to make it. Two of the three monks had their weapons drawn and ready to fire. She had just one throwing knife left.  


Gamora looked up at the spark in the charging blaster and made up her mind. With a swift motion she thrust the knife at the flame-thrower wielding monk who was aiming at Groot. She owed Groot this much.  


She was ready to meet her end – well, not really ready, she still had unfinished business she would have gladly taken care of. But she was ready to accept that she wouldn’t be able to. She didn’t turn away from the blaster, just steeled herself for the impact. Gamora wouldn’t die a coward.  


She heard Rocket’s gasp but didn’t risk turning away from the monks. Later, she would be glad she didn’t close her eyes, because otherwise she would’ve missed it all. She wouldn’t have witnessed how the third, weaponless monk fell into the cavity right beside Drax’s feet, pushed by a blue energy pulse. Or how the shot meant for her was never fired because no one could aim properly while their neck was being broken. Another blue blast finished off the drone. And as soon as that, the fight was over.  


Gamora let out a breath she wasn’t aware she was holding.  


She was trained to act instinctively in the face of danger but nothing has ever prepared her for quickly collecting herself in the face of being rescued, so she stood there, head tilted, slowly grasping what had just happened. Seeing Star-Lord’s mask leaning over the rocks’ edge wasn’t surprising at all. By now she knew he was capable of much more than the team gave him credit for, and she could recognise his hand-made blaster anywhere by both its distinctive colour and sound.  


She was, still, stunned.  


“This last son of a less than respectable woman will not bother us again!” Drax exclaimed triumphantly from beside her.  


“Great, buddy!” Peter removed his mask and flashed them with his carefree grin. “But next time you can just tell us the guy’s dead. You okay, guys?”  


“QUILL!” Rocket screamed in fury, suddenly coming out of the startled daze. “What the fuck? We were rescuing you!”  


“Uh?” Peter sat down on the rocks, feet dangling from the edge. “Not that I’m complaining about you caring, I’d say it’s touching! But still, guys, why on Xandar would you come here to rescue me?  


“I am Groot!”  


“Uh, well, except for the fact that I was kidnapped. Yeah, I can kinda see how that could’ve made you uneasy.” No one but Rocket actually understood what Groot was saying but they all had gotten better at guessing from the context in the last months. “But I’ve told you, guys, I got this!”  


“With all the mess you regularly get yourself into with these words coming out of your mouth, how could we assume that you actually got this?” Gamora deadpanned.  


“Hey, I’m not _that_ bad!” Peter immediately protested, but was faced with whole team disbelief. “Okay, fine, I might attract some trouble but it’s never really my fault!” The looks grew even more incredulous. Peter rolled his eyes in defeat. “Whatever, man. Come on now, team, you fine to go? I bought us a few minutes but we need to move. And I do hope Milano is somewhere near with the camouflage on, and not lost to the monastery. Even I wouldn’t be welcomed back there to recover it.” He glanced at them expectantly, standing back up. “So? Lead the way!”  


***  


Unlike the last time they recovered the kidnapped team members, their return to the ship was quick and relatively peaceful, save for Rocket’s grunts and insults thrown at Quill, Groot’s occasional gentle interruptions and Peter’s good-natured laughter.  


Gamora kept quiet and stayed behind, making sure that no one was following them. She took that chance to watch her team, somehow – still whole. She found herself... pleased that they were all together again, even if they kept arguing without a break, being either obnoxiously loud and frustrated, or obnoxiously cheerful and careless.  


Still, the adrenaline hadn’t yet faded from her bloodstream and the sudden disappearance of the threat bothered her. It shouldn’t have been that easy; after engaging the scouts, they should’ve been assaulted by the main forces already.  


“Don’t worry, Gamora.” Peter joined her where she trailed two steps behind the team. Rocket hardly noticed that, simply directing his invectives at Drax instead. Half of his words didn’t even make sense to the Destroyer, anyway. “They’re not coming, promise, I made sure of it.”  


“You might be more than meets the eye, Peter, but you can’t seriously expect me to believe that you took down all of these monks all by yourself.”  


“What? Don’t be ridiculous!” Peter scoffed. “There’s no way we could beat all of them and save the children they kidnapped, even if we fought together. As soon as we get to Milano, I’m tipping off Nova Corps, letting them take care of that. We can’t deal with everything on our own, can we, they might start feeling incompetent if we solve every crisis in the galaxy without their help.”  


“Most of the time, they _are_ incompetent.”  


Peter burst with laughter and the sound calmed down the assassin’s nerves by the tiniest bit.  


“Yeah, I know, right? But let’s not tell them that, Dey wouldn’t stop complaining if he heard us!” They walked a few dozens of steps before Star-Lord spoke again, this time earnestly. “Honest to Void, they’re not coming, not anytime soon. I’ll explain once we set off from this planet, okay?”  


She nodded curtly in response, she could wait that long, she supposed. With one last glance behind, she told herself to trust Peter. Despite his devil-may-care attitude, he never let her down in a pinch. When facing serious danger, Star-Lord was just as dependant as any other team member.  


The spaceship welcomed them with the soft whirrs of the opening hatch. As soon as they were inside, Peter rushed to the console and started the engines. Smoothly, with a few well-practised commands, he took off from the rocky ground. Gamora left him to contact Dey. As she ushered the other Guardians to the infirmary, she hoped Peter didn’t hide any serious injuries. It wouldn’t exactly be the first time he neglected his own health.  


The Guardians worked well together even off the battlefield, moving silently around each other. Drax went to get clean water for Groot. The colossus, in turn, sprouted violet flowers whose painkilling properties they had all experienced first-hand before. Gamora helped Rocket on the bed and rummaged the first-aid kit for antiseptics.  


“Motherfucking fuckers, all of’em! I am soooo gonna finish’em off!”  


Ah, apparently Rocket decided to take a look at his own wounds. Admittedly, they looked much worse than they truly were, the assassin had checked them briefly already, but the sight was definitely not pretty.  


“Here you are, friend Groot!” Drax bellowed, placing a bucket full of water in front of the flora colossus, who accepted it with a grateful ‘I am Groot’.  


The Destroyer then turned to Gamora.  


“Would you mind, friend Gamora, taking a look at my injury so I can be more helpful when we aid our teammate Rocket?”  


They went a long way since when they were at each other’s throats for Drax to speak to her freely about his weakness, she noted absently. Before he even finished the question, the assassin took his arm in her hands and felt it expertly. Sprained, just as she thought. All it needed was… A crack of a set joint and a small grunt on Drax’s part later and it was done.  


“There you are, good as new.” She patted his wrist lightly.  


“I do not believe my wrist to be new, friend, but I can tell that you’re not speaking literally. Thank you.”  


Gamora nodded with a brief smile. This was the easy part of the after-battle clean-up. Her hands were the smallest and the steadiest so the honour of tending the worst kinds of wounds was hers. The assassin stifled a deep sigh. Rocket better not bite her this time.  


***  


Rocket’s wound was stitched up and bandaged before Gamora and Peter, who came to the infirmary as soon as their flight course was steady and distant enough from the S’ear temple, let themselves rest.  


Gamora was, too slowly, realising that not all of them had recognised how much Peter was doing for them on a daily basis. For starters, he relieved them from the necessity of contacting the Nova Corps, which for the others was the necessary, but still unpleasant evil. Peter lead them through space with his experience he gained with the Ravagers, he fought the battles alongside the other Guardians as an equal, bringing them relief with his juvenile jokes when the tension got too high. He was always there when they needed him, be it by distracting Rocket from Gamora picking at the raccoon’s injury or by saving their asses from a foreign holding cells. And he never complained, not seriously, when he went out of his way for them.  


He was their true leader, Gamora finally understood. Treating him like he was only goofing around and causing trouble for the Guardians was not only inconsiderate, but ungrateful as well. And despite the attitude Rocket gave him, Peter not even once held that against him.  


Star-Lord was a man of a great heart, which he carefully hid behind his reckless mask.  


“You were going to tell me how you succeeded in stalling our pursuers.”  


Peter looked up at her, startled, not expecting Gamora to show up at his cabin’s door. He was in the middle of changing clothes.  


“Uh, hey there.” He motioned her to come in but she merely shook her head. She wasn’t planning on staying long. “Well, um. So I lifted this nifty little thing off of Anethro… that’s the name of their so-called Goddess, by the way, she must’ve come in contact with Asgardians some time ago because it looks like it’s imbued with their magic.” Peter patted his pockets, trying to locate the stolen piece. Finally, he found it in the back of his trousers. “Yeah, this thing. Don’t look too closely, I’m not really sure how it works, but it was enough to put the entire monastery to sleep, so it’s gotta be pretty intense, right?”  


It was true, Gamora could already feel the whisper of the golden amulet, tempting her to look at the jasper in the middle of the intricate piece. She had to close her eyes to collect her thoughts.  


“Let me get this straight, Peter.”  


“Yup?”  


“You picked the pockets of the S’ear Goddess.”  


“Yeah, one of the many skills you learn on the Ravagers crew.”  


“And you discovered she had an amulet imbued with some strong magic, almost _literally_ leaking off of it?”  


“I mean, you can somehow feel it, it’s almost as if it had an aura or something!…”  


“And you decided to take a _completely unknown_ artefact and use it without any forethought?!”  


“Not without _any_ forethought, don’t make it look this bad! Anthro did tell me that she had a way to control the Monks so I figured…”  


“Do you have any idea how _dangerous_ that was?!” Gamora shouted in the theatrical whisper, not wanting to make the injured Guardians run to them in panic. “You have _no idea_ how it works and you used it?! You utter fool, you could have gotten yourself _killed_ , just by touching the damned piece!”  


Peter shifted on his feet, hiding the artefact back in his pocket. Gamora wanted to growl at such a careless action.  


“Weeeeell, we have survived the Infinity Stone, haven’t we? It couldn’t have been as bad, now, right?”  


“Fool,” Gamora repeated, but with the amulet out of her sight it was easier to drop the subject. For the time being. “Tell me this: if you didn’t know about the artefact, then how come you were so sure about escaping?”  


“You’ve never heard about the S’ear before?!” Peter noticed Gamora’s blank face and coughed. “Yeah, you probably wouldn’t.”  


“What does _that_ mean?”  


“Whoah, Gamora!” Peter raised his hands in a calming motion. “Don’t get so worked up, it’s nothing bad, really. It’s kind of a... niche knowledge?” He cleared his throat. “You see, S’ear is the place that I, long before I even started to fly on my own, actually wanted to visit. How to explain that… There is… gossip? About the place. They say the monks kidnap the ones considered to be the bravest warriors or heroes, and they always let them out after a few weeks. What happens inside is… Um.”  


With a sheepish smile, Star-Lord took off his shirt.  


At first, Gamora got concerned about Peter’s well-being. This many bruises didn’t come from nothing. But then…  


“Peter Quill!” she screamed, this time not even bothering to keep it quiet. He was all covered in hickeys, of all the things! “You made us worried for _that_?!”  


“I _did_ tell you I got this, you really didn’t have to come after me! I would’ve gotten the coordinates, come back to Kazzul, tipped off Nova Corps, all without any fuss, it’s when you barged in that I had to improvise…”  


“And now you make it _our_ fault?! How dare you, Peter Quill?! You’re unbelievable! We were worried sick, who knew what kind of human ingredients were used in the longevity potion she…” Peter’s uncertain half-smile and the way he was barely holding in his laughter told her more than she wanted to know.” No. No, that’s just disgusting! What the fuck, Peter?”  


Gamora stormed off. She took it back. She took it all back. No great heart, no great leader, just one utter and complete _ass_!


End file.
